Matthew Moore is a journalist for The Daily Telegraph and Telegraph.co.uk, with a particular interest in the creativity, community and humour of the internet. He has worked at the Telegraph for four years.

Talking cats: A YouTube morality tale

From adorable home video to user-generated garbage in four short steps. With apologies to Hogarth.

1) People film their cute cats 'talking' in bed and post it on the Internet. We smile, and send the link to our friends.

2) Internet wits dub the exchange, offering their own translation. It's clever, well-timed and funny ("Someone's coming. Act like a cat"). We laugh.

3) Less talented Internet 'wit' tries the same, but with swear words instead of humour. We snigger, once, then feel used. (Not for the easily offended).

4) Drunk man posts his own rambling take on the talking cat phenomenon. We wonder whether a website that offers a platform to such pointless, vacuous brain-rot is really a good thing. We vow to waste no more of our precious afternoon browsing for stupid clips when we have lots of work to do.